sponsored contenthttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/13695/all
enHow a Twitter Account Turned Into a $500,000 a Year Businesshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/how-twitter-account-turned-500000-year-business-164662
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/2015_May/uber-facts-twitter-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
Kris Sanchez always had a hobby of looking up random trivia, or as he put it &quot;the most unimportant things you&#39;ll ever need to know.&quot; In 2011, he began experimenting with social media and posting his findings on his Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/uberfacts" target="_blank">UberFacts</a>. In order to get more followers, he invested $1,000 in Twitter advertising.</p>
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&quot;I started it when I was 18 and studying in SUNY New Paltz,&quot; Sanchez explained. &quot;I started tweeting these fun facts, and didn&#39;t take it that seriously.&quot;</p>
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Three years later, UberFacts has sent out more than 88,300 tweets and now has 10.7 million followers including celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Aaron Paul and Kim and Khloe Kardashian. It has <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UberFacts?fref=ts" target="_blank">a Facebook page</a> with more than 1.5 million likes and an iOS app with upward of 2 million downloads. And, thanks to its viral success, Sanchez claims its Twitter account alone is bringing in $500,000 in ads annually, with the iOS app pulling in $60,000 a week. (Monetization for the Android app, which was launched in December 2014, was not disclosed.)</p>
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&quot;All that was organic, and that was also very, very cool,&quot; he said.</p>
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Sanchez explained that after he amassed his first million followers, he started working with services like <a href="https://affiliates.chacha.com/" target="_blank">ChaCha</a> and <a href="http://socialreactor.com/" target="_blank">Social Reactor</a> that create sponsored content and seed it through affiliates. UberFacts would weave in branded posts from companies like MTV, Paramount and Ford in between its original tweets, and then get paid a fee each time a user would click the branded links. All the sponsored content Sanchez selects fits in line with the trivia UberFacts usually posts.</p>
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10 images we can&#39;t unsee &ndash; So we want to share them with you: <a href="http://t.co/DpBhsujjfm">http://t.co/DpBhsujjfm</a> <a href="http://t.co/sLzCPpf2hH">pic.twitter.com/sLzCPpf2hH</a></p>
&mdash; UberFacts (@UberFacts) <a href="https://twitter.com/UberFacts/status/597529556006866944">May 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
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15 colleges you didn&#39;t know were on the beach &ndash; Unless you went there, then you probably know. <a href="http://t.co/yYOGeO4dS2">http://t.co/yYOGeO4dS2</a> <a href="http://t.co/tKbCx0SuKs">pic.twitter.com/tKbCx0SuKs</a></p>
&mdash; UberFacts (@UberFacts) <a href="https://twitter.com/UberFacts/status/597499373879177217">May 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
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15 things you didn&#39;t know about The Walking Dead! <a href="http://t.co/xyifFIHTuh">http://t.co/xyifFIHTuh</a> <a href="http://t.co/xzBmkS6BSQ">pic.twitter.com/xzBmkS6BSQ</a></p>
&mdash; UberFacts (@UberFacts) <a href="https://twitter.com/UberFacts/status/597469216904732672">May 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
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The UberFacts app makes money from traditional banner ads, but Sanchez said they will offer sponsored takeovers of its Twitter or app page in the near future.</p>
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&quot;Our main concern has always been making sure that things like the app and the Twitter page were as good as they could be before making money off of them,&quot; he said.</p>
<p>
Whether the facts are true&mdash;both <a href="http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/uberfacts-is-full-of-lies-1541956164" target="_blank">Gizmodo</a> and <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/the-truth-about-uberfacts-theyre-often-wrong#.ttV9L2ZpG. " target="_blank">BuzzFeed</a> have written articles claiming the trivia isn&#39;t always correct&mdash;remains a point of contention. Sanchez said he and one other person discover and verify all the facts posted, often from sources like Reddit, Digg, Google Alerts and Mental Floss.What is certain is that Sanchez is forging ahead with the account and thinking about developing books and television projects.</p>
<p>
&quot;After all these things are done and successful, I might want to get into reality TV production or casting,&quot; the 23-year-old said.</p>
TechnologyChaChaSocial Reactorsponsored contentTwitterTwitterMichelle CastilloThu, 21 May 2015 13:01:02 +0000164662 at http://www.adweek.comTeen Vogue Debuts Condé Nast's First Sponsored Cover Adhttp://www.adweek.com/news/press/teen-vogue-debuts-cond-nasts-first-sponsored-cover-ad-164185
Emma Bazilian<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/tresemme-teen-vogue-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
Kylie Jenner has been the subject of plenty of online buzz this week for landing <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/kylie-jenner-lands-the-may-teen-vogue-cover-116582036243.html" target="_blank">her first solo Teen Vogue cover</a>, but it won&#39;t be the reality star&#39;s face subscribers see when they receive their music-themed May issue. That&#39;s because Teen Vogue&mdash;in a first for parent company Cond&eacute; Nast&mdash;is getting in on the growing cover ad trend with a false cover sponsored by hair-care line Tresemm&eacute;.</p>
<p>
In addition to the cover, Tresemm&eacute;&#39;s sponsorship, which focuses on festival style, includes an advertorial on the inside flap with tips on how to get Jenner&#39;s cover look, a pair of online video tutorials produced by Cond&eacute; Nast Entertainment, an Instagram contest, and various posts on Teen Vogue&#39;s website and social channels.</p>
<p>
Jason Wagenheim, publisher and CRO of Teen Vogue, believes that the magazine&#39;s young audience is likely to be more receptive to a sponsored cover than their older counterparts might be. &quot;I think that the younger half of millennials, which we service, is being brought up in a new age that expects this type of integration from sponsors,&quot; he said. &quot;It&#39;s not an ad in their face.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;By integrating Tresemm&eacute; into already existing editorially-driven concepts, we&#39;re able to make an authentic connection between the brand and Teen Vogue&#39;s audience,&quot; said Jennifer Daly, marketing director of salon-inspired hair-care brands at Unilever.</p>
<p>
&quot;We&#39;re proud of this unit and it&#39;s indicative of how we intend to do our business moving forward,&quot; added Wagenheim, who said there are two more sponsored covers in the works for 2015.</p>
<p>
Cover ads have been a hot topic in the magazine industry of late. ASME released an <a href="http://www.magazine.org/asme/editorial-guidelines" target="_blank">updated version of its native ad guidelines</a> last week that loosened restrictions on publishers. (The previous version included blunt statements like &quot;Don&#39;t Print Ads on Covers&quot; and &quot;Don&#39;t Ask Editors to Write Ads.&quot;)</p>
<p>
&quot;It was the ASME board&#39;s judgment that you could put an ad on the cover&hellip; and that an ad on a cover would not necessarily bring into question the editorial integrity of a magazine as long as it was clear that it was an ad,&quot; said ASME chief executive Sid Holt. &quot;I&#39;m not uncomfortable with [the trend]. We work in an advertiser-supported medium, and as far as I&#39;m concerned, any execution that is transparent to the reader is not an issue&quot;</p>
<p>
While the Teen Vogue sponsored cover is Cond&eacute;&#39;s first, other publishers have experimented with them during the past year or so. Subscriber copies of Cosmopolitan&#39;s May 2014 issue featured a <a href="http://wwd.com/media-news/fashion-memopad/cosmo-under-the-covers-7626142/" target="_blank">peel-away cover</a> sponsored by L&#39;Oreal&mdash;at the time, editor in chief Joanna Coles presciently commented, &quot;I suspect we&#39;ve unleashed a trend.&quot; And last month, fellow Hearst glossy Marie Claire <a href="http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/marie-claire-cover-is-one-giant-ad/336354" target="_blank">ran its own sponsored subscriber cover</a> featuring a kaleidoscope of Stuart Weitzman shoes. Over at Time Inc., <a href="http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/this-is-the-end-time-inc-starts-selling-ads-on-magazine-covers/215424" target="_blank">flagship title Time </a>featured a minuscule Verizon ad on mailing labels last spring. Forbes, unsurprisingly, has <a href="http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/forbes-gives-up-puts-sponsored-ad-on-cover/332417" target="_blank">pushed the envelope</a> the furthest, placing a (not-so-clearly-labeled) native ad among its regular cover lines in February.</p>
<p>
Wagenheim told Adweek that the Tresemm&eacute; cover remains within the ASME guidelines, new and old. &quot;The ASME guidelines are about servicing the reader first and foremost,&quot; he said, &quot;and I believe that, with the help of a sponsor, we&#39;ve created high-value impact with additional content that services our reader first.&quot;</p>
The PressConde Nastnative adssponsored contentTeen VogueTRESemméEmma BazilianMagazineTue, 21 Apr 2015 20:18:55 +0000164185 at http://www.adweek.comChevrolet, Jash Create the #BestDayEver of Positive Prankvertisinghttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/chevrolet-jash-create-bestdayever-positive-prankvertising-163804
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/uploads/kelly-clarkson-hed-2015.jpg"> <p>
April Fools&#39; Day is known as a day to pull pranks on your nearest and dearest. However, Chevrolet and online comedy network Jash believe that not every trick has to be mean-spirited.</p>
<p>
The two have teamed up for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOGCVyYG2U0" target="_blank">#BestDayEver, an eight-hour YouTube livestream</a> of real-life surprises around the U.S. that kicked off at 3 p.m. ET today. Hosted by comedian Jon Dore and YouTube influencers Garfunkel and Oates out of YouTube Space L.A., the programming will feature special appearances and &quot;happy&quot; stunts facilitated by the likes of soccer team Manchester United, social media star Tyler Oakley, and Epic Meal Time host Harley Morenstein. There&#39;s even going to be an impromptu public performance from Kelly Clarkson at an undisclosed location sometime today.</p>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="367" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mamc_iBpjjE" width="652"></iframe></p>
<p>
&quot;We want to surprise people to get them to rethink what they know about Chevrolet and reintroduce our lineup of award-winning cars and crossovers,&quot; Chevrolet U.S. vp of marketing Paul Edwards said. &quot;By making it the #BestDayEver for thousands of people across the country, we want them to take notice that the brand is back in a big way.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
<p>
YouTube will promote the livestream on its masthead, and will further push it with about 50,000 interactive lightbox ads that will stream across the Google Display Network. It will also be featured on the YouTube Live channel.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/brands-make-prankvertising-positive-160718" target="_blank">Positive prankvertising</a> has been growing as a trend, as brands seek a way to tap into the prank genre without damaging their company&#39;s reputation. Today&#39;s April Fools&#39; Day livestream will also help launch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7ufN7Cep1mHWN6_7JJVg0NoJoVERaCOB" target="_blank">Chevrolet&#39;s new campaign</a> highlighting the technological advances and design of its products, especially through two 2015 models, the Malibu and Spark.</p>
<p>
&quot;These surprises will reach a wide range of audiences from younger audiences through YouTube personalities and other celebrities, to people who are already may have a relationship with us like NASCAR and IndyCar fans,&quot; Edwards said.</p>
<p>
Jash co-founder Mickey Meyer explained that the idea for the positive nature of this project really came from Chevy.<br />
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&quot;For us, it was a no brainer to work with them because of the success of so much content with a pay-it-forward nature,&quot; Meyer said. &quot;It was the best tool in signing up talent. Our success rate in getting people to participate is near perfect.&quot;</p>
TechnologyApril Fools' DayBranded ContentJashOnlineOnline videoMichelle CastilloPrankvertisingsponsored contentVideoYoutubeWed, 01 Apr 2015 18:12:24 +0000163804 at http://www.adweek.comThe Tech Community Laments Gigaom's Demisehttp://www.adweek.com/news/press/tech-community-laments-gigaoms-demise-163385
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/uploads/om-malik-hed-2015.png"> <p>
After extensively covering the Apple Watch launch Monday, online tech publication Gigaom shocked its readership by abruptly halting publication due to unpaid debts.<br />
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Gigaom, launched in 2006 by journalist Om Malik, was widely heralded as a pioneering tech blog. According to its media kit, <a href="https://about.gigaom.com/mediakit/" target="_blank">it reached 6.5 million unique visitors</a> a month. And, in a February 2014 post, Malik said the publication&nbsp;<a href="https://gigaom.com/2014/02/20/now-that-gigaom-is-all-grown-up-its-time-for-the-next-chapter/" target="_blank">raised more than $8 million</a> from its latest round of venture capital funding. So, the site&#39;s announcement that it was ceasing to produce content sent ripples across the tech community, making it a trending topic on Twitter late Monday night into Tuesday.</p>
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Shocked to hear the sudden <a href="https://twitter.com/gigaom">@gigaom</a> news. Sending kudos to my friend <a href="https://twitter.com/mathewi">@mathewi</a> and the whole highly-employable team.</p>
&mdash; rachelsklar (@rachelsklar) <a href="https://twitter.com/rachelsklar/status/575278150353096704">March 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
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Very sad about <a href="https://twitter.com/gigaom">@gigaom</a>. I credit this post from <a href="https://twitter.com/om">@om</a> with helping to launch my career. Still really grateful. <a href="https://t.co/TUES4No7rr">https://t.co/TUES4No7rr</a></p>
&mdash; Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/575278424798920704">March 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Glad to have gotten to see <a href="https://twitter.com/om">@Om</a> make such a graceful and important mark on the entire world of tech journalism: <a href="http://t.co/TS3vX89Fgu">http://t.co/TS3vX89Fgu</a></p>
&mdash; John Maeda (@johnmaeda) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnmaeda/status/575162583742746624">March 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
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As a reader, I always felt like every Gigaom reader respected my intelligence. I craved that. I clicked on it. I&#39;m going to miss it.</p>
&mdash; Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) <a href="https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/575101969511153664">March 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>
&quot;Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time,&quot; the publication said&nbsp;<a href="https://gigaom.com/2015/03/09/about-gigaom/" target="_blank">in a statement.</a> &quot;As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company&#39;s assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along.&quot;</p>
<p>
Malik, who left the publication about a year ago, thanked Gigaom&#39;s readers&nbsp;<a href="http://om.co/2015/03/09/a-statement-about-gigaom/" target="_blank">on his personal blog</a>&nbsp;for their continued support, as well as the investors who helped the business flourish before tech blogging became in vogue.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Just walked out of Gigaom for the last time. Thank you everyone. I will miss you all for rest of my life! <a href="http://t.co/IBOhRuZ4DZ">http://t.co/IBOhRuZ4DZ</a></p>
&mdash; Om Malik (@om) <a href="https://twitter.com/om/status/575100483271987201">March 10, 2015</a></blockquote>
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The PressGigaOmOm MalikOnlinesponsored contentTeradataMichelle CastilloTue, 10 Mar 2015 18:54:56 +0000163385 at http://www.adweek.comReddit's Pick for New Ad Leader Shows the Site Is Getting Serious About Mobilehttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/reddits-new-ad-leader-lurker-so-he-already-knows-his-way-around-162462
Garett Sloane<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/reddit-logo-hed-2015.png"> <p>
Reddit&#39;s ad team has a new leader as the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/what-snoop-dogg-going-do-reddit-160930" target="_blank">&quot;Front Page of the Internet&quot;</a> forges ahead with a mobile and marketing push. The company hired Zubair Jandali from Google, who started this month as Reddit&#39;s first vp of sales.</p>
<p>
Jandali had been with Google since 2009 when the company<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/11/google_buys_adm.html" target="_blank">&nbsp;bought ad network AdMob</a>,&nbsp;where he also worked. His hiring is yet another sign Reddit is serious about developing a mobile advertising presence.</p>
<p>
Reddit recently bought Alien Blue, the app that lets readers access Reddit on mobile, to hone a more sophisticated approach to smartphones and tablets. Alien Blue is Reddit&#39;s first in-house app. Now, it has a vp of sales with experience in mobile advertising to go along with the product. &quot;Mobile is definitely one big area of investment for the company, so my background certainly plays into that,&quot; Jandali said in a phone interview this week.</p>
<p>
Reddit offers brands two ways to advertise on its site, which reaches 150 million people a month: banners and sponsored headlines. Headlines are the items that users and brands post to Reddit, and users can vote up or down on whether they like them. The user-submitted headlines that accumulate the <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news-gallery/technology/12-reddit-posts-ruled-internet-2014-162091" target="_blank">most positive votes rise to a higher position</a> on the page, but brands pay for top placement.</p>
<p>
There are over 8,000 &quot;active&quot; user-generated groups on the site called subreddits dedicated to different categories; they can attract fans of brands, movies, science fiction or just about any interest you can imagine. Advertisers can target a subreddit or buy ads on the front page of the site, which gets 50 million views a day, Jandali said. For instance, on Wednesday TBS promoted a headline on reddit.com at the top of the page for the show King of the Nerds.</p>
<p>
Jandali said visitors who click on sponsored headlines can spend up to five minutes in the posts.</p>
<p>
Reddit can be a tough crowd for brands, however, and users are known for calling out posts that smack of too much marketing. &quot;Helping advertisers and brands engage in the right way is our chief challenge,&quot; he said. Original ideas, sparking conversation and responding to users are all keys to effective marketing there, he added.</p>
<p>
The sponsored headlines, a native ad format, are meant to blend naturally within Reddit, while also being marked as promotions.</p>
<p>
&quot;I&#39;ve been a longtime lurker on the site myself,&quot; Jandali said, referring to himself in Reddit-speak for a visitor who just surfs the site but doesn&#39;t comment much. &quot;As a user I&#39;ve found the richest conversations on the Internet are happening there, and I&#39;m intrigued by the prospect of helping build out the company.&quot;</p>
<p>
Jandali reports to CEO Ellen Pao, who took the role after a shake-up late last year that saw the exit of the former CEO and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/alexis-ohanian-returning-help-run-reddit-161418" target="_blank">the return of co-founder Alexis Ohanian</a> to board chairman. The ad sales teams are based in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.</p>
TechnologyAlexis OhanianEllen PaoMobileMobile advertisingnative advertisingGarett SloaneRedditsponsored contentTbsThu, 22 Jan 2015 11:00:01 +0000162462 at http://www.adweek.comImgur Plans to Dive Into Promoted Posts in 2015http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/imgur-plans-dive-promoted-posts-2015-161897
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/imgur-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Imgur doesn&#39;t just want to be the online destination for people to look at memes: It wants to be the place brands call home as well. To further appeal to marketers, newly hired vp of market development Steve Patrizi said the image-sharing platform will likely launch Promoted Posts in July 2015.</p>
<p>
&quot;Rather than doing wallpaper stuff or crazy banners, we think there&#39;s something very powerful that can come from a brand<strong> </strong>that&#39;s not overly commercialized, that looks and feels like other posts there,&quot; Patrizi said.</p>
<p>
There&#39;s much buzz around Imgur, which raised $40 million through venture capital firm&nbsp;Andreessen Horowitz earlier this year. Since it launched in 2009, it has quickly grown to be the hot spot for viral pictures. According to the company, more than 150 million users browse its pages, and it gets upward of 60 billion views a month. Users spend an average 10 minutes on the website.</p>
<p>
The company announced Patrizi&#39;s new role Thursday as part of a plan to grow its native ad business in 2015. Previously, Patrizi was head of partner marketing at Pinterest, and he helped build marketing solutions at LinkedIn.</p>
<p>
While Imgur has offered ad packages, called Sponsored Posts, to brand marketers in the past, Patrizi explained these were mostly experimental. (The goal he said, was to learn best practices for native ads without upsetting the San Francisco company&#39;s loyal readership.) It previously told Adweek that its native ads had <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/imgurs-native-ads-get-between-1-and-4-engagment-rate-160402" target="_blank">an engagement rate of between 1 percent and 4 percent</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Unlike Sponsored Posts, which were usually promoted on Imgur&#39;s homepage, Promoted Posts will pop up after users click on regular content. Patrizi explained the company moved away from homepage ads in order to reach more users (and annoy fewer of them). And algorithms will ensure readers won&#39;t see the same ad during the same visit, although they may see different posts from the same marketer.</p>
<p>
Brands won&#39;t be able to target a Promoted Post to a specific demographic; they&#39;ll have to advertise to all readers. But Patrizi said the move will benefit brands. Because Imgurians are a community, they&#39;re more likely to talk about an ad they all see, rather than one that pops up for a handful of them.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
Currently, Imgur is looking for 10 to 12 partners to test out Promoted Posts. Ideally, Patrizi believes brands that fall within the gaming and technology; media and entertainment; and consumer packaged-goods umbrellas will resonate the most with its audience.</p>
TechnologyThe PressImagesImgurnative contentOnlineMichelle CastilloFri, 12 Dec 2014 00:06:30 +0000161897 at http://www.adweek.comImgur's Native Ads Get Between 1% and 4% Engagment Ratehttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/imgurs-native-ads-get-between-1-and-4-engagment-rate-160402
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/imgur-gifs-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Native content doesn&#39;t just have to come in the form of written stories: Digital image platform <a href="http://imgur.com/" target="_blank">Imgur</a> says it knows how to get audiences to pay attention with pictures and GIFs. It believes if it can get people excited about a branded image, that will make users think highly of a marketer&mdash;and the more time people spend clicking through those sponsored images, the more positive association will build.</p>
<p>
Imgur has been quietly doing branded campaigns over the last few years, but didn&#39;t have a direct sales staff until Imgur&#39;s head of special initiatives Tim Hwang joined in March 2014. Even with its limited launch into native ad territory, it claims to achieve average engagement rates between 1 percent and 4 percent, with content occasionally getting up to 12 percent. (&quot;Engagement&quot; refers to the sum of likes, comments and shares, similar to Facebook.) For comparison, <a href="http://www.socialbakers.com/blog/2137-finding-the-right-engagement-rate-for-your-facebook-page-in-2014" target="_blank">Socialbakers</a> reports Facebook pages with 1 million-plus fans get an average engagement rate of roughly 0.3 percent.</p>
<p>
&quot;The cultural currency of communication online is now more and more visual,&quot; Hwang explained.</p>
<p>
For those who aren&#39;t familiar with the image repository time suck&mdash;and we mean that in the best way possible&mdash;the company claims it gets 130 million unique monthly visitors and 1 billion views per month. Each user spends almost an average of 10 minutes on its Web site, and more than 1.5 million images are uploaded daily.</p>
<p>
&quot;The big thing that we&#39;ve been able to do is...search through all the continuous activity across the platform to design experiences and content that are a win for both sides&mdash;brands and the community,&quot; Hwang said.</p>
<p>
Recently, Imgur ran a campaign for <a href="http://imgur.com/blog/2014/08/29/if-i-were-a-cop/" target="_blank">Fox&#39;s Let&#39;s Be Cops</a>, in which it asked users to create an original image to illustrate what they would do if they were a member of the police force. The best submission would earn an all-expenses-paid weekend trip to Los Angeles, where the winner would enter a real training facility. While only 63 submissions qualified for the competition (mainly because the other ones weren&#39;t unique content), hundreds of people interacted with and commented on the contest page or suggested other pictorial content. The company has also run campaigns for Anchorman 2, hosted sponsored images for General Electric and worked with textbook company Text.com.</p>
<p>
Imgur&#39;s COO Matt Strader believes that what makes its native images engaging is that Imgur is set up so that its albums naturally tell a story, except they use pictures instead of words. &quot;From a native advertising aspect, the essence of that experience works great on the Web and great with mobile&mdash;and the impact just grows more and more over time,&quot; he stated.&nbsp;</p>
TechnologyThe PressBranded ContentImgurnative adsnative advertisingMichelle CastilloOnlinesponsored contentFri, 26 Sep 2014 15:09:48 +0000160402 at http://www.adweek.comIf You Block an Ad, Facebook Now Wants to Know Whyhttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/if-you-block-ad-facebook-now-wants-know-why-160070
Garett Sloane<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/fb-ads-final-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Facebook wants to know why users decide to block certain sponsored posts in an effort to serve more relevant ads in the News Feed. The social network has always let users hide unwanted ads, but now the site will ask a series of questions about why.</p>
<p>
When users click on a sponsored post to block it, they&#39;re asked, &quot;Why don&#39;t you want to see this?&quot; Was it because you found it irrelevant, offensive, annoying? Facebook says responses from relatively few people will increase the relevance of ads for all users.</p>
<p>
&quot;When testing this update, we looked at when people told us that ads were offensive or inappropriate and stopped showing those ads. As a result, we saw a significant decrease in the number of ads people reported as offensive or inappropriate,&quot; the company said in a <a href="http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/09/news-feed-fyi-listening-to-peoples-feedback-to-show-better-ads/">blog post today that announced the new ad tool</a>. &quot;This means we were able to take signals from a small number of people on a small number of particularly bad ads to improve the ads everyone sees on Facebook.&quot;</p>
<p>
Facebook said ad monitoring won&#39;t impact most advertisers or the performance of their campaigns.</p>
<p>
Also, Facebook has been testing another new feature&mdash;vanishing posts. This week, some iPhone Facebook app users started trying out expiration dates on posts so the statuses automatically delete&mdash;removed from the permanent digital record.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/09/10/facebook-testing-new-feature-lets-schedule-deletion-posts-advance/" target="_blank">The Next Web</a>&nbsp;was the first to see images of the vanishing posts. It reports that users are asked if they want their posts to expire within minutes or within a week. The expiring posts appear to be a response to changing social media use, especially among young people who no longer want a lasting record of all their digital activities.</p>
TechnologyDataFacebookFacebookFacebook adsFacebook advertisingGarett SloaneMobileSocialsponsored contentsponsored postsThu, 11 Sep 2014 19:59:11 +0000160070 at http://www.adweek.comMic Forgoes Banners for Native Advertising http://www.adweek.com/news/press/mic-forgoes-banners-native-advertising-159726
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/marie-curie-doll-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Millennial-targeted <a href="http://www.mic.com/" target="_blank">Mic</a> believes that if you want to reach young people, you have to use methods they&#39;ll pay attention to. To them, it means skipping banner and other traditional display ads that this demographic tends to ignore. Instead, the New York-based online publisher has opened up native and sponsored advertising opportunities.</p>
<p>
&quot;We know that millennials don&#39;t respond well to that form of advertising,&quot; Mic&#39;s ceo Chris Altchek said of display ads. &quot;Our readers really trust us, and we know there&#39;s a lot of brands that are trying to develop trust with millennials.&quot;</p>
<p>
Mic hopes that by tapping into what it knows about its growing audience of 19.8 million monthly unique viewers&mdash;with an average age of 28 and 80 percent of whom attended college&mdash;it can provide lucrative opportunities for marketers and beat out its competition, including <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/buzzfeed-expands-thanks-50m-investment-159436" target="_blank">Buzzfeed</a> and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/press/vox-launches-explainer-news-site-156843" target="_blank">Vox</a>. It also bolstered its content marketing team in June by hiring CRO and publisher John Schneider, who founded <a href="http://www.blankscreenventures.com/" target="_blank">Blank Screen Ventures</a>, and director of brand products Brianne Garcia, who came to Mic from Complex Media, where she served as content marketing manager.</p>
<p>
For example, Altchek said, Mic noticed that its readers enjoyed stories about entrepreneurship and innovation. Its <a href="http://www.mic.com/articles/97336/mic-launches-first-major-content-marketing-efforts-with-cole-haan-and-cadillac-partnerships">first partnerships with Cole Haan</a> and Cadillac&mdash;<a href="http://www.mic.com/articles/96860/two-engineers-have-created-the-doll-every-young-girl-should-be-playing-with" target="_blank">a 10-part series on female leaders</a> changing their industries and a 10-part series on how company leads are reinvigorating their businesses in unique ways, respectively&mdash;reflect that interest but maintain the same tone Mic has in all of its editorial content.</p>
<p>
&quot;We&#39;re covering a diversity of issues all with the same consistencies, with the same philosophical, smart and engaging perspective,&quot; Altchek said.&nbsp;</p>
The PressCadillacCole HaanMicMillennialsnative advertisingMichelle CastilloPolicy Micsponsored contentTue, 26 Aug 2014 17:08:00 +0000159894 at http://www.adweek.comThe Success of Native Advertising Hinges on Earning Readers’ Trusthttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/success-native-advertising-hinges-earning-readers-trust-159653
Sam Slaughter<p>
There&rsquo;s been much talk of late about the effectiveness of sponsored content, and <a href="http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/getting-in-feed-sponsored-content-right/" target="_blank">a pair</a> of <a href="http://contently.com/strategist/2014/07/09/study-sponsored-content-has-a-trust-problem-2/" target="_blank">new studies</a> published in the past few weeks have let some air out of that balloon. Both show that readers tend to take a skeptical view of branded content, especially the kind that appears on publisher sites (full disclosure: One of the studies was conducted by <a href="https://contently.com/" target="_blank">Contently</a>, which signs my paycheck).<span style="font-size: 12px;">&nbsp;</span></p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin: 15px 0px 15px 15px;">
<img class="fancyzoom" data-fancybox-src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/voice-sub-teachings-01-2014.jpg" src="/files/imagecache/test-width/voice-sub-teachings-01-2014.jpg" />
<p class="caption">
<span class="meta-credit">Illustration: James Walton</span></p>
</div>
<p>
Most media watchers have pointed out that the results of these surveys are bad news for an industry that&rsquo;s increasingly counting on sponsored content to replace lost traditional ad revenue&mdash;and supposedly bad news for companies that have built their businesses on helping brands create editorial content. But I think the results actually reveal an opportunity&mdash; not only for content marketing shops, but for brands and publishers as well.</p>
<p>
First, lumping everything a brand publishes under the umbrella of sponsored content ignores the fact that there&rsquo;s a huge distinction in readers&rsquo; minds between paid media and owned media. In a rush to judgment on branded content, many people in our industry miss the point that readers trust earned media whether it comes from a brand or not, but they&rsquo;re suspicious of paid media no matter whose name is on it.</p>
<p>
Contently works with a lot of brands and publishers on the paid media side of branded content, but the lion&rsquo;s share of our business (and where we see the future) is on brands owning their own content and paying to promote it on publishers&rsquo; sites as a piece of a bigger media strategy.</p>
<p>
Here&rsquo;s an analogy: Owned and paid media are kind of like a great teacher and a substitute. You see a great teacher every day; and most days you learn something new and useful from them. You build up trust with this teacher over time, you listen to what they have to say, and as with the best teachers, the relationship continues even after you&rsquo;ve left the class. That&rsquo;s the kind of relationship brand publishers can create with owned media.</p>
<p>
A substitute (a sponsored story), on the other hand, doesn&rsquo;t have that earned trust, and anything they say is going to naturally be viewed with more suspicion. Here&rsquo;s the thing though: sometimes the substitute is awesome. In the best cases, they can bring new perspectives, new information and new energy to a classroom. The best sponsored content can bring those things to an audience in the same way.</p>
<p>
One could make (and many have made) the case that brands communicating directly with audiences is bad news for publishers who depend on being the audience gatekeepers. I don&rsquo;t buy that.</p>
<p>
For one, building an audience is hard, and even a brand with its own audience will want to reach other audiences with its message. Whether it uses sponsored stories, paid distribution or social advertising to get there is dependent on the circumstances&mdash;but the need to reach additional eyeballs efficiently and effectively is constant.</p>
<p>
Case in point: Contently&rsquo;s industry pub, The Content Strategist, has nearly 200,000 unique visitors per month at last count. And yet we still pay to place sponsored content on publisher sites (Adweek is one such partner). Why would we do that when we could put it in front of our own audience for free? Simple. Those sites have the readers, the audience we want and need to reach.</p>
<p>
As the study conducted by Edelman Berland/IAB concludes, sponsored content is only effective if both the brand and publisher work together to make sure the reader is getting something valuable. That means no sales pitches, extra transparency and, above all, a focus on quality storytelling. When brands pay to put content elsewhere, they need to be sure the publisher is willing to work with them to make certain the sponsored content put on their site is great. Publishers in turn need to push back against brands that are intent on promoting schlock.</p>
<p>
Despite some misgivings from readers, sponsored content is and will continue to be incredibly valuable to all branches of the media ecosystem&mdash;brands, publishers, readers&mdash;but only if it&rsquo;s done thoughtfully.</p>
<p>
No one wins if the substitute sucks.</p>
<p>
<em>Sam Slaughter (<a href="https://twitter.com/samslaughter215" target="_blank">@samslaughter215</a>) is vp of content at Contently.</em></p>
Advertising & BrandingBranded ContentContentlyMagazine Contentsponsored contentThe VoiceTue, 26 Aug 2014 14:17:50 +0000159653 at http://www.adweek.comFunny or Die Reveals 10 Percent of Its Kik Fans Click on Video Messageshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/funny-or-die-reveals-10-percent-its-kik-fans-click-video-messages-159567
Garett Sloane<p>
Funny or Die found a new way to boost video views. All it takes is a little Kik&mdash;help from the messaging apps&#39; new <a href="http://kik.com/promoted-chats-now-on-kik/" target="_blank">Promoted Chats product.</a> The digital comedy crew at <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/" target="_blank">Funny or Die,</a> co-founded by Will Ferrell, said it is getting a 10 percent click rate on videos it sends through the messaging app to its fan base, grown with the new paid marketing product.&nbsp;</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin: 15px 0px 15px 15px;">
<img src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/funny-or-die-01-2014.jpg" /></div>
<p>
It is among a handful of brands testing Kik Messenger&#39;s ad product, which lets marketers promote their accounts, accumulate contacts and connect with them.</p>
<p>
Now, Funny or Die has more than a million Kik followers, about the same as it has on Tumblr. One in 10 are clicking on messages that encourage followers to &quot;check out this video.&quot;</p>
<p>
&quot;I&#39;ve been around this space a long time, and I&#39;ve never seen that kind of number,&quot; said Patrick Starzan, vp of marketing and business development at Funny or Die.</p>
<p>
When the humor site posts videos to Facebook or Twitter, by comparison, about 0.5 percent of people who see the link actually click, Starzan said.</p>
<p>
The Kik ad tests show that <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/branding-potential-behind-some-mobile-messaging-s-big-players-155421" target="_blank">messaging can be a powerful marketing medium</a> as users spend more time on these apps, including Snapchat, WhatsApp, Line, WeChat and Tango.</p>
<p>
Kik, founded in 2009, is a quiet, high-ranking force in the app charts with more than 150 million registered users. It has some big-name investors, including Union Square Ventures, and it last raised money in April 2013&mdash;$20 million. The messaging space has been flush with cash since then, which could mean Kik is in line for more financing.</p>
<p>
This year, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/messaging-app-tango-raises-280-million-156415" target="_blank">Tango raised $280 million,</a> mostly from China&#39;s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.</p>
<p>
The messaging rivals are coming up with their own modes of generating revenue to support all this investor confidence&mdash;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/disneys-frozen-coming-messaging-apps-sticker-form-158049" target="_blank">Line sells stickers,</a> WeChat experiments with e-commerce. Many platforms are handling overt advertising with care, however, because brands can be intrusive to users who just want to talk with friends.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/advertisings-new-frontier-talk-to-the-bot-1406493740" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal said</a> Kik&#39;s Promoted Chats represent a new form of bot advertising, letting marketers set automated messages to mass communicate in a way that seems one-on-one. It&#39;s been called &quot;chatvertising.&quot;</p>
<p>
Treading lightly, Funny or Die sends out a message twice a week on Kik, as opposed to six to eights posts a day on Facebook and Twitter, Starzan said.</p>
<p>
Once a brand accumulates Kik followers through paid Promoted Chats, it gets to message its fan base eight times a month for free, he said.</p>
<p>
&quot;Anything else, you pay for,&quot; he said, revealing a model that is similar to Facebook, where marketers buy a following and <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/starwoods-crazy-facebook-roi-and-5-other-surprising-brand-reveals-156674" target="_blank">support community outreach with a paid strategy.</a>&nbsp;A maximum of eight free messages was agreed upon during the testing phase, but the number could change when the ad product ultimately launches.</p>
<p>
Heather Galt, a vp at Kik, said six brands have tested Promoted Chats, which launched last month. Nearly 3 million Kik users viewed Promoted Chats and opted to communicate with one of the brands, she said, including the million that tapped Funny or Die.</p>
<p>
&quot;In the first week, 18 million messages were sent and received,&quot; she said.</p>
<p>
The other early Kik marketers include Moviefone, DoSomething.org, Cambio and Wattpad.</p>
<p>
Brands also are building mini-websites optimized for running inside Kik. For instance, last year the boy band <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/one-direction-unveils-best-kik-campaign-ever-154164" target="_blank">One Direction launched a Kik-optimized page,</a> and since then more than 500 pages have been created, making Kik a mobile hub.</p>
<p>
Galt said the combination of Kik-optimized pages and Promoted Chats are creating new ways for brands to push media and promotions. The app also has a place for sponsored positions in the search bar where users look for Kik pages. And there is a &quot;featured&quot; position within the top sites tab, another potential place for brands to promote their presence.</p>
<p>
&quot;We see multiple opportunities on the platform with Kik-optimized Web pages, top sites and limited advertising,&quot; Galt said. &quot;And we&#39;re building more.&quot;</p>
TechnologyFacebookFunny or DieGroup messagingInstant MessagingkikGarett Sloanemessaging appsMobilemobile messagingmobile messaging appnew adnew ad productnew adsSnapchatSocialsponsored adssponsored contentTangoTumblrTwitterWeChatWhatsAppWill FerrellMon, 18 Aug 2014 20:39:23 +0000159567 at http://www.adweek.comHow CNN Made a Cisco-Sponsored Web Series About Progressive Citieshttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/how-cnn-made-cisco-sponsored-web-series-about-progressive-cities-158983
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/cnn.jpeg"> <p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cnn-bumps-original-programming-156955" target="_blank">During&nbsp;CNN&#39;s 2014 Upfronts</a>, president Jeff Zucker vowed that the network would be focusing on its digital presence and creating new opportunities for advertisers.</p>
<p>
Three months later, the net&#39;s Web-first production company, CNN Digital Studios, is working with <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/cisco-ad-future-it-depicts-all-delightfully-interconnected-155116" target="_blank">Cisco</a> to present <a href="http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/05/specials/city-of-tomorrow/" target="_blank">City of Tomorrow</a>, a 10-part online series that explores ways different cities are trying to improve their citizens&#39; lives. A 30-minute special, also called City of Tomorrow, will air on CNN on July 19.</p>
<p>
&quot;Within our CNN Digital Studios, we have an opportunity to build premium content, and we have that big television network to amplify it. The beauty of the Cisco partnership is that we can go across our various platforms to highlight the stuff coming out of our digital studios group,&quot; said Katrina Cukaj, evp of ad sales at CNN.</p>
<p>
Cukaj said having a digital-first arm&nbsp;facilitates innovative brand assimilation, particularly customized campaigns that&nbsp;fit with&nbsp;editorial content. She added that the high quality of the digital outlet&#39;s productions lent itself to making deals with brands.</p>
<p>
For example, Cisco is the sponsor of the entire project, which was&nbsp;developed by CNN Digital Studio&#39;s editorial team. In addition, the technology company has a branded episode on Barcelona, where it happens to have a large presence.</p>
<p>
Cukaj said that while a separate branded content team created that episode and it&#39;s labeled&nbsp;sponsored content, it was important for CNN Digital Studios to weave it in seamlessly with the rest of the editorial material. &quot;The goal for out team is marrying it as close as possible and trying to create as native of an experience as we possibly can,&quot; she explained.</p>
<p>
CNN Digital Studios has other works in the pipeline, including Be a Champion with former NFL player Dhani Jones and Related with Dave Franco.&nbsp;Sponsors have yet to be named for those&nbsp; projects.</p>
<p>
&quot;The advertising marketplace is really craving this premium content. We&#39;ve seen a lot more projects come our way with our clients since we&#39;ve launched this group,&quot; Cukaj said.</p>
TechnologyTelevisionThe PressBranded ContentCableCiscoMichelle CastilloCnnCNN Digital StudiosOnlinesponsored contentVideoFri, 18 Jul 2014 10:00:02 +0000158983 at http://www.adweek.comNetflix Looking To Pursue More Native Advertisinghttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/netflix-looking-pursue-more-native-advertising-158367
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/netflix.jpg"> <p>
Online audiences are oohing and ahhing over Netflix&#39;s New York Times branded content on <a href="http://paidpost.nytimes.com/netflix/women-inmates-separate-but-not-equal.html#.U59hu41dV4x" target="_blank">women inmates</a>, tied to the hit series <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/netflix-books-third-season-orange-new-black-157482" target="_blank">Orange Is the New Black</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>
While this is one of the first pieces created out of the Grey Lady&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/TBrandStudio" target="_blank">T Brand Studio</a>, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/netflix-will-stop-telling-customers-verizon-making-their-movies-load-slower-158214" target="_blank">Netflix</a>&nbsp;isn&#39;t new to the native advertising. And a source close to the situation told Adweek that Netflix was looking to ramp up on native ads/branded content because it is pleased with the outcome of the NYT effort as well as a recent initiative with Wired. A sponsored article with the tech-focused magazine <a href="http://www.wired.com/partners/netflix/" target="_blank">on TV viewing habits</a> was also lauded for editorial content.&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Whoa. This is a pretty sophisticated native ad in the NYTimes for Orange is New Black <a href="http://t.co/syXi1xe9QI">http://t.co/syXi1xe9QI</a></p>
&mdash; Kelly McBride (@kellymcb) <a href="https://twitter.com/kellymcb/statuses/478559554675167233">June 16, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p>
&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Continuing to love <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes">@nytimes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23nativeadvertising&amp;src=hash">#nativeadvertising</a> executions, this time for <a href="https://twitter.com/netflix">@netflix</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/OITNB">@OITNB</a> <a href="http://t.co/v79dOh2R0y">http://t.co/v79dOh2R0y</a></p>
&mdash; Raju Narisetti (@raju) <a href="https://twitter.com/raju/statuses/477527186006872064">June 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><p>
&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
Don&#39;t know if this is a native ad or sponsored content but it is very well done. <a href="http://t.co/Li45kQHeUx">http://t.co/Li45kQHeUx</a></p>
&mdash; Stan Lee (@BrandDNA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandDNA/statuses/477824163944488960">June 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p>
The Wired piece focused on how people are rapidly viewing TV content in different ways than sitting in front of the tube. It aligned with a recent Netflix public relations push explaining the same concept: People want to come home to the streaming video service.</p>
<p>
Of course, it makes sense for Netflix to spend most of its ad budget on <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/television/digital-media-now-bigger-national-tv-advertising-will-surpass-total-tv-2018-158360" target="_blank">digital media</a>, given that it&#39;s an online brand. Netflix is banking that these articles send home the message that if audiences are looking for good storytelling&mdash;they don&#39;t need to search any further than a subscription to the service.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
And, the New York Times is apparently open for branded business. Sebastian Tomich, vice president of advertising and branded content for the New York Times, told <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/06/you-can-expect-more-multimedia-rich-native-advertising-from-the-new-york-times/" target="_blank">Nieman Lab</a> that audiences could expect more rich media ads in its upcoming pieces.&nbsp;</p>
Advertising & BrandingTechnologyTelevisionBranded Contentnative advertisingNetflixMichelle CastilloOnlineOrange is the New Blacksponsored contentT Brand StudiosWiredMon, 16 Jun 2014 22:43:07 +0000158367 at http://www.adweek.comBuzzFeed Changes Labels on Promoted Contenthttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/buzzfeed-changes-labels-promoted-content-158060
Michelle Castillo<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/buzzfeed.jpeg"> <p>
<a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/press/buzzfeed-presidentcoo-jon-steinberg-leaving-company-157625" target="_blank">BuzzFeed</a> is revamping how it specifies sponsored content.</p>
<p>
The site will now label branded content with a small, bold yellow box stating it is &quot;promoted by&quot; a particular marketer, and brand pages will be labeled &quot;brand publisher&quot; instead of &quot;featured partner.&quot;</p>
<p>
BuzzFeed previously designated sponsored content with a &quot;presented by&quot; tag and placed it on a light yellow background, similar to how <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/google-expands-its-brand-plans-real-time-results-157885" target="_blank">Google</a> used to promote its ads. However, the pale color was difficult to distinguish on BuzzFeed, especially on mobile screens.</p>
<p>
The move is in line with social networks like Facebook and Instagram, which designate sponsored content with less pomp and circumstance than publishers such as The New York Times. Branded articles on the Grey Lady are <a href="http://paidpost.nytimes.com/dell/will-millennials-ever-completely-shun-the-office.html#.U4j4q5RdV4z" target="_blank">surrounded in blue</a> and <a href="http://paidpost.nytimes.com/GoldmanSachs/an-interactive-guide-to-capital-markets.html#.U4j7UZRdV4w" target="_blank">have bold disclaimers everywhere</a>, from the URL to the kicker at the bottom of the page, proclaiming that editorial no part in creating the materials.</p>
<p>
Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-claims-baby-faced-fraudster-used-all-click-tricks-157954" target="_blank">Facebook</a>&nbsp;puts &quot;sponsored&quot; directly under an advertiser&#39;s name, and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/videowatch/sports-brands-are-winning-big-instagram-videos-157970" target="_blank">Instagram</a> stamps an arrow logo with the &quot;sponsored&quot; label across from the brand name. <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/omnicom-exec-says-twitter-deal-about-mobile-video-programmatic-157972" target="_blank">Twitter</a> shows that a tweet was paid for with a yellow box and an arrow, followed by the word &quot;promoted.&quot;</p>
<p>
Marketers tend to be wary of content boldly designated as non-editoral, but as long as the content is high quality, most readers don&#39;t care, said MEC&#39;s managing partner of digital content marketing Gian LaVecchia. Brands should not be afraid of having their content highlighted as promoted, as long as it&#39;s good, he said, adding, &quot;It&#39;s all about transparency and authenticity.&quot;</p>
<p>
BuzzFeed&#39;s reputation affords it a little more leeway, LaVecchia said. After all, when you&#39;re writing about cats and the problems of millennials, people don&#39;t always take your content that seriously. &quot;The essence of their brand gives them liberties other brands don&#39;t have,&quot; he said.&nbsp;</p>
TechnologyThe PressBuzzfeednative advertisingOnlinePromoted ProductsMichelle CastilloFri, 30 May 2014 22:33:49 +0000158060 at http://www.adweek.comFacebook and MeUndies.com Are Having a Great Cat-and-Mouse Gamehttp://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-and-meundiescom-are-having-great-cat-and-mouse-game-157477
Garett Sloane<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/meundies-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Facebook keeps catching MeUndies.com with its pants down when it comes to ad policies on the social network. But the underwear e-tailer is having too much fun and experiencing too much success to stop.</p>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin: 10px 0px 10px 15px;">
<img class="fancyzoom" data-fancybox-src="/files/imagecache/node-detail/meundies-02-2014.jpg" src="/files/imagecache/test-width/meundies-02-2014.jpg" /></div>
<div class="news-article-image" style="float: right;margin: 10px 0px 10px 15px;">
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<p>
In April, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/meundies-wants-have-men-covered-143939" target="_blank">Los Angeles-based MeUndies.com&#39;s</a> ads employed pictures of scantily-clad models, but Facebook banned them. So the Web merchant last week began using stick-figure cartoons and links to its previously banned promos with headlines that read: &quot;2 hot 4 Facebook.&quot; The parody ads got click-through rate three to five times higher than normal. MeUndies.com retargeted visitors to its website with more Facebook ads.</p>
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Well, its parody campaign then also ran into trouble&mdash;Facebook told the player it can&#39;t use its name in their marketing language.</p>
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&quot;I want to be clear we love Facebook, but we did grow frustrated with some of their guidelines,&quot; Dan King, a marketing lead at MeUndies.com, told Adweek. &quot;We noticed they may have pushed an update to guidelines looking out for any messaging that refers to Facebook in a negative way.&quot;</p>
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Most of the e-commerce company&#39;s marketing is done on Facebook, King said.</p>
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&quot;We came up with this concept to toy with Facebook, and this would create even more interest from casual news feed readers likely to click through to our website to see what all the fuss was about,&quot; he said.</p>
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Here is what Facebook told his team: &quot;Your ad wasn&#39;t approved because it uses Facebook logos, trademarks, or site terminology, such as &#39;The Facebook,&#39; &#39;FacebookHigh,&#39; &#39;FBook,&#39; &#39;FB,&#39; &#39;Poke,&#39; &#39;Wall,&#39; or other company graphics, logos, designs, or icons.&quot;</p>
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King said his copywriting staffers are testing language that will allow MeUndies.com to keep marketing its ads as &quot;2 hot 4 Facebook.&quot; They are tweaking the language to circumvent the new rules, instead of &quot;Facebook,&quot; they&#39;ll say &quot;2 hot 4 fb,&quot; switching uppercase and lowercase and abbreviations, to see what gets past the screening process.</p>
Technologybrand marketingecommerceFacebookFacebookFacebook adsGarett Sloaneretargetingsocial retargetingsponsored adssponsored contentsponsored storiesMon, 05 May 2014 17:49:41 +0000157477 at http://www.adweek.com